Especially when they have 50 years of accumulated dust/oil/crud.

Main hands.



Minute Recorder Hand



and Minute hand.



As you can see, they are rather dirty and have slight corrosion blisters along the edges. They're from a Landeron based chrono I'm servicing and when I went to put them back on I checked them out and went "Ugh!, no way!".

So how do you clean hands as delicate and rare as these. The risks associated with mechanical cleaning were too great, so my solution was a solution, Town Talk Silver Cleaning Solution in fact.

I had a 100ml tube jar and filled it with the cleaner, placed the hands into the jar and put it in the ultrasonic bath for 5 minutes. Then the solution was poured off and successive fills of distilled water added and allowed to rinse off the solution. The whole lot was then poured gently into a 125micron funnel filter, then laid on a Kimwipe to dry in the sun.



This is the crud trapped in the filter.



I think they turned out quite well.



My next big decision.
Do I attempt to clean the dial. From arm's length it looks OK, but under a scope it looks pretty bad. If I knew most of the spots and blemishes would come off I'd try the cleaning solution, but I'm not sure so I think I'll just have to live with a soft brush and a puffer to clean it up.

 

Very nice result. I'd like to see the final result once it's all back together as well!

 

Wow - nice result. As for cleaning the dial, I can report only several failures, despite taking every care I could think of. I would do the minimum to get the dial clean - just gently wipe it over with a cotton earbud to remove the dirt. However there are far more knowledgeable OF members who may be able to give better opinions.

 

Nice work, what a difference.. Silicone buds might be good to use on that dial

 

I used some silicone tip buds to remove the larger dirt/grit specks.
Followed that up by using a fine sable brush (cleaned before use) to dust off anything loose remaining on the dial. That's as far as I was willing to go.

On an aside, a PSA.
I often see people recommending the use of Q-Tips/cotton buds/cotton swabs for watch cleaning operations.
I would strongly discourage this unless it's only limited to specific areas on specific finishes, e.g.: the back of stainless steel cases to remove crud prior to opening.
Cotton swabs have to use some form of bonding agent to keep the cotton in a ball (or point) in correct shape on the stick and this, together with the cotton fibres, I've found to be abrasive enough to cause scratches in softer surfaces.

I would never use them on crystals, dials, hands, plated cases or plated movement parts.

Note: Just my opinion/experience.

 

Yep, good advice.. that exactly reflects my experience with cotton buds and why I suggested the silicone buds for the dial, it's so easy to be tempted to just that little bit more A sable brush is a very good recommendation and a useful bit of kit and you can get some really nice super fine-pointed ones from good art supply shops. I've yet to try one of those Bergeon crystal pen cleaners, I tend to use a brand new optical microfiber cloth each time, have you heard any experience with using one of these pen cleaners?

 

I also just recently learned the hard way not to use cotton swabs, specifically on the inside of the crystal for me. I wanted some abrasiveness but some fibers got stuck between the crystal and case. I was able to get most out but I think one is still jammed under there but not visible. Luckily not an expensive piece.

 

Inside of crystals can be cleaned with window cleaner and a soft sable brush, softest bristles you can find (ladies makeup brush).
Do both sides then rinse in filtered tap water or distilled water and shake dry.
Final finish with isopropyl alcohol and microfibre cloth.

Edit: I have not done this with crystals coated with anti-reflective material, see post below for caution.

 

outstanding!

 

Great advice, I got some freebies from the Chanel makeup counter at Selfridges
perhaps one little adage for anti-reflective coatings.. window cleaner or alcohol can solubilize the anti-reflective coating causing blurring and ghosting and general yuck..
Although I have intentionally removed anti-reflective coatings using 99.9% isopropyl (and a bit of elbow grease), as sometimes they just look a bit too blueish-ish, and it worked a treat.

 

Thank you, I will note this down. I just used the cotton swab and 70% isopropyl alcohol I had on hand. Also wasn’t thinking about reaction with AR coating but think I’m safe on this one. I was playing very fast and loose with this watch as I didn’t particularly care if I ruined it. Here is the watch/crystal I’m talking about.
https://omegaforums.net/threads/what-happened-to-this-crystal.158466/#post-2175186

 

Great job.. but that looks like a lightning-burn (Lichtenberg figure) patternation before it was cleaned

 

@JimInOz The hands have come out beautifully. Can I ask are they made of brass? Does this silver cleaning solution trick work on all metals? Are there any metals you can't use it on?

 

I think brass on this scale would probably be too soft, they are most likely plated Steel

 

Gold plated steel?

 

Yes, most likely.

 

This bergeon adhesive swab can come in hand, don't forget to get the cleaning pads

https://www.esslinger.com/bergeon-adhesive-swabs-7007-23/

 

This is what I use for removing lint from dials, hands, and the inside of crystals.

 

Yessir, you are the reason I have them! Thank you for all your assistance. Now I just need motivation to get back into it. :/

 

Thanks guys. Sorry for derailing.